Bill-184 Update & Random Thoughts
I'm a Bill-184 keener and I have spent lots of time reading, watching debates and hearings, and researching it. That said, I'm not a lawyer or paralegal so please hire professionals when you need RTA/LTB help.
a) Parts of Bill-184 received Royal Assent and are in force while other parts won't be in force until "On a day to be named by proclamation of the Lieutenant Governor." We don't know when proclamation will be so be sure to work with the most recent version of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) that outlines the sections that are in force and those that aren't.
b) The new Repayment Agreement is available on the LTB site as of today. This document can be used by landlords and tenants when tenants fall behind in their rent payments. Tenant advocates really have their knickers in a knot over repayment agreements because they believe that they allow landlords to evict tenants faster and without hearings which isn't true.
Check out the 2 attachments. One chart shows the LTB mediated repayment agreement process and the second is the private agreement process. They are meant to be high level. Simple overviews. Some details are missing but they show how tenants are protected and still have their hearings. A few friends who are RTA/LTB savvy reviewed the documents for me. Anyways, the charts show that landlords cannot evict tenants unilaterally. Only the LTB can issue eviction orders. The charts also show that it's been a long time since I've used software like Visio haha.
c) I advocate for small landlords and Bill-184 was a good opportunity for them to unite but it hasn't happened in a large scale.
e) The media and elected officials have finally started to recognize that small landlords are very different than the mid-sized and big landlords. I hope this trend continues.
d) The amount of pro-tenant media coverage has been staggering. Tenants have so much support from the media, tenant groups, and elected officials. Groups like ACORN receive government funding so they can lobby for change and fight the government when things like Bill-184 are introduced. That's crazy. Tenant groups are organized (with help from some elected officials) and work well together (small landlord groups are the opposite) but they also spread fear and half truths about all things Bill-184. The funny thing is that 95% of tenants, tenant groups, media, and elected officials haven't actually read the RTA and Bill-184.
e) Overall, Bill-184 has helpful changes for both tenants and landlords (more for tenants actually). There are a couple of changes that I don't like but that's always the case.